Anatomy of a tariff: The painstaking science behind price plans

You might think mobile tariffs are marketing tools, designed to appeal to your wallet, not your brain, but each of our price plans is the result of painstaking R&D, scientific analysis and careful behavioural studies. Read on, and we’ll show you the anatomy of a Vodafone tariff. We might even have read your mind in the process.

The bundle of minutes, text messages and data that makes up your monthly allowance is put together after months of scrutiny and research. Our pricing team study how different people use their phones, when and why they make calls, how they top up their accounts and figure out the best way to put together the best packages to suit them. Contrary to popular opinion, we start by understanding your brain, not your wallet.

We figure out the best way to put together the best packages to suit you.

Take Pay As You Go as an example. Our research into the habits of PAYG users has thrown up some interesting stats. For starters, did you know that 57 per cent of top-ups are done when there is less than 50p credit left? If their mobile phone was a car, it’d be running on fumes before filling it back up.

More surprising still, over 40 per cent of Vodafone customers that run out of credit will wait six or more days before topping up. They’re unable to send texts, make calls or download data in a pinch for almost an entire week before loading up more credit. An astonishing 23 per cent are happy to go for more than 10 days with less than £1 credit on their phone. It seems our PAYG customers love sailing close to the wind.

That research suggests that people aren’t always able to top up, frequently forget to, or simply don’t want credit resting in their account. The result is that getting caught without credit when they need to make an important call is inevitable.

Buzz Back lets you send a free text message to any number asking them to call you back

Introducing Buzz Back

To make life easier for those PAYG people, we put our thinking caps on and came up with a feature called Buzz Back.

Buzz Back lets you send a free text message to any number asking them to call you back, even when you’re out of credit. You’ll still be able to get in touch with your nearest and dearest if you really need to, and it’s completely free of charge. You can send two free messages every day, which we think should make life easier for those skirting the bottom of their PAYG balance.

It’ll be handy for parents too. We know a lot of young people use PAYG phones, so now they’ll always be able to let their folks know if they’re late, lost or need help, even without credit on their account.

Buzz Back lets you send a free text message asking a friend to call you back.

Laura Snee, Product Manager for the Pay as you go Product Team, told us “The reason people like Pay as you go so much is the freedom and choice that it provides, but there’s nothing more restrictive than being out of credit. By introducing Vodafone Buzz Back we’re hoping to fill in those gaps when you’ve forgotten to top up in time, but still need to let someone know you’re trying to get in touch.”

We’d love to hear how you use your PAYG phone below, especially if you’ll find Buzz Back a boon. Shout up in the comments section.